One person died and 50 were arrested after some 2,000 police,
using rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons, confronted a protest by
villagers against pollution from a chemical plant in China's Inner Mongolia, an
overseas human rights group said.

Inner
Mongolia has seen sporadic unrest since 2011 when the vast northern region was
rocked by protests after an ethnic Mongol herder was killed by a truck after
taking part in demonstrations against pollution caused by a coal mine.

Ethnic
Mongols, who make up less than 20% of Inner Mongolia's 24 million population,
say their grazing lands have been ruined by mining and desertification and that
the government has tried to resettle them in permanent houses.

Coal rich Inner Mongolia is supposed to enjoy a high degree of
self-rule, but many Mongols say the Han Chinese majority has been the main
beneficiaries of economic development.

In the
latest incident, villagers in Naiman Banner took to the streets to protest
against a chemical processing zone they said was polluting farmland and grazing
land, the New York-based Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Centre
said in a statement late on Monday.

The group
quoted a witness as saying police used rubber bullets, tear gas and water
cannons to disperse the demonstrators, leading to one death.

An
official who picked up the telephone at the local government said he was unable
to confirm any deaths and declined to comment further.

However
the government posted on its official microblog on Monday that it had ordered
the chemical zone to close and shift to another undisclosed location and that
it would punish any rule breaking by the companies there.

The
government also said that it would go after protesters who blocked roads,
smashed up vehicles, stoked tension or spread rumours. – Reuters, April 7,
2015.